MELBOURNE, March 28 (Reuters) - Lithium miners are receiving...

MELBOURNE, March 28 (Reuters) - Lithium miners are receiving prices for their contracted material that are more than 10% above spot prices, reflecting renewed interest from battery chemicals makers.

Four lithium deals in the past fortnight have been achieved at elevated levels, according to company and media reports, adding to signs the market for the battery raw material has stabilised after prices plunged 80% in the past 12 months.

Miners say that spot market prices have lagged behind those they are selling for amid a broader industry discussion about pricing transparency. Contracted prices are not typically made public, although price providers will be able to include these lithium deals into their calculations, lifting prices.

"Last week, MinRes sold spodumene concentrate at $1,300 a tonne, more than 10 percent higher than the current spot price," Mineral Resources (MIN) Chief Executive of lithium Joshua Thurlow said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday.

“It’s clear the market is waking up to the future demand for lithium that is required for the global energy transition as long-awaited supply projects slow down or fail to materialise."

MinRes is now looking at selling via a digital auction platform to generate "real price transparency," he added.

Brazil's Sigma Lithium Corp SGML.V on Wednesday said it had received $1,333 a tonne for a 22,000 lithium concentrate shipment, including value added tax.

Meanwhile, Albemarle ALB.N sold 10,000 tonnes of Western Australian lithium concentrate this week for around $1,200 per tonne, according to price provider Fastmarkets, citing market participants.

The concluded price was slightly higher than Fastmarkets’ spodumene spot price assessment of $1,000-1,100 yuan per tonne on March 22, it said.

Albemarle said it was not publishing the prices achieved through the recent bidding event out of respect to bidders.

"Our emphasis is on promoting price transparency and allowing participants to state what they consider the appropriate price to be through private bids," it said.

"We see this as a responsible approach to price discovery that can lead to fair product valuation - for both buyers and sellers - and drive towards a more robust, sustainable market."

These results come after Pilbara Minerals (PLS) on March 14 said it had accepted an offer for a shipment of 5,000 tonnes lithium concentrate for December for $1,200 a tonne.

Dan Morgan at Barrenjoey said the results likely reflected consumers restocking, and prices were likely to stay around $1,200-$1,300 as higher prices would simply encourage supply to restart.

"The market rebalanced very quickly as the result of a bunch of cuts and project delays which probably were a bit larger and faster than some might have expected," he said.

"I don't think demand is meaningfully better now than it was several months ago and I don't think there's a strong case for continued price appreciation in the next three to six months."

($1 = 1.5319 Australian dollars)